Good news for nurses working in the government! There will be no ‘demotion’ in the classification of Nurse II to VII as previously ordered by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
The Office of the President through Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea issued a Memorandum to the Department of Health (DOH) and DBM regarding the modification of nurse positions.
The Memorandum hereby directs both government agencies to adopt the following:
* INCREASE OF THE SALARY GRADE (SG) OF NURSE II positions to SG16 (P36,628).
* RETENTION of POSITION TITLES OF NURSE III to NURSE VII with their corresponding SGs (No more demotion on position titles).
“After undertaking a judicious consideration of the merits, positive and negative points, and the financial impact of both the DOH’s and the DBM’s positions, pursuant to Republic aCt No. 6758 and RA No. 11518 (FY 2021 General Appropriations Act), and in recognition of the indispensable and essential role of public health nurses in ensuring a functioning healthcare system in the country, especially exemplified and highlighted during the current COVID-19 pandemic, hereby DIRECTS THE ADOPTION of the increase of the Salary Grade (SG) of Nurse II positions to SG-16 and the retention of position titles of Nurse III to Nurse VII with their corresponding SGs,” said Medialdea in the Memorandum.
To recall, Supreme Court ruled on October 2019 declaring as valid Section 32 of Republic Act No. 9173 or the Philippine Nursing Act which gives entry-level nurses (Nurse I) Salary Grade 15 pay.
Through Budget Circular 2020-4, DBM implemented the decision on Nurse I but “modified” the existing nurse positions, essentially reducing them all one level, so that Nurse II is now Nurse I, Nurse III is now Nurse II, and so on through Nurse VII, which was reclassified as Nurse VI.
The implementation did sit well with government nurses as they deemed it as demotion of their ranks. The uproar led to the suspension of the DBM’s circular on reclassification of Nurse II to VII.